Community's needs put first with CPA-2

Kudos for endorsing the Community Planning Act in your Nov. 18 editorial.

Kudos for endorsing the Community Planning Act in your Nov. 18 editorial.

The CPA-2, as it is called, would revamp the state's outmoded and obstructive state land-use laws and give power back to local communities to determine their future course of growth and development.

Under CPA-2, a town seeking to change zoning for the good of the community would not have its efforts undermined by grandfathering provisions that protect a property owner from complying with the zoning change for up to eight years. No other state in the nation so favors a property owner over the legitimate needs and desires of the community at large.

Under CPA-2, local laws and regulations for site plan review would apply for subdivisions along existing roads, in stark contrast to the state's existing "approval not required" law allowing a property owner to develop lots along an existing road without undergoing local review.

Today throughout Cape Cod and across Massachusetts, towns have adopted master plans that call for growth to be directed to town centers and away from natural resource areas, yet their zoning bylaws typically mandate the exact opposite. CPA-2 would require that a community's zoning law be consistent with its master plan.

Maggie Geist

Executive director

Association to Preserve Cape Cod

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